Gunpla Build - High Grade Xi Gundam (Build)

This kit has a ton of runners. That’s not surprising.

What is surprising is that some of the parts are small. Really small. Where are they going to go on such a big model?

Also, looking at this spread, I’m also a bit worried about the color accuracy. All the red, yellow, and orange parts are on the A Runner, and there aren’t many of them.

Then again, the decal sheet is pretty big, so maybe that will pick up the slack. Only one way to find out!

Head

Is the head larger than most High Grades? Yes.

Does it still feel weirdly small for such a large mobile suit?

At least, that was my initial reaction once I built the head. We’ll see if I change my mind once the full model is fully assembled.

In terms of assembly and engineering, this one is quite nice. The seamline runs right down the middle, which means it is covered entirely by the red cap on the top of the head:

Also, because the head is bigger than normal, there’s a degree of part separation around the face that you might not otherwise be able to achieve. That being said, it does require a tiny bit of color correction, specifically right here:

As always, the V-Fin has those little safety tabs on the ends that keep them from being too sharp and pointy for children. Normally I find these pretty easy to remove, but not this time.

They’re very long and wide, and I may have trimmed off the tip of one of the fins while trying to remove the tab. I gave a slight trim to the other one to try and match the length, and I think I (mostly) got it right. The good news is that either way, no one is going to really notice once it is on the shelf.

Upper Torso

There’s so much going on here. Let’s start with the “basic” torso, without the thrusters or the giant, cancerous, fake “head”:

Aside from being huge, this looks like a pretty standard Gundam torso. Sure, the chest vents are the wrong color, but they’re still there.

But this is just the base, upon which the rest of the accouterments will go. Our next step is to add these little grey arms, upon which we attach another set of (yellow) vents:

These grey arms are also the attachment point for the chest “fangs”:

Thanks to some nice orange stickers, these are actually color accurate out of the box (though there is quite a bit of panel lining you can choose to do).

Once these are attached, we can then assemble and attach the fake head:

Again, we have to do some color correction - all the grey you see here had to be painted in:

Last but not least, we have to slap the thrusters on the back:

It’s just two big nozzles and a blue enclosure; both the shape and the color remind me of the GM Sniper II.

Here’s the whole assembly when viewed from the side, which I think does a good job of showing you all the individual components that make up the chest:

It is at once both not nearly as complex as I imagined it to be, while still also being far more complex than your average High Grade (and arguably even some older Master Grades, some of which would require far more color correction than anything we’ve seen so far from the Xi Gundam).

Lower Torso

Thanks to part separation and stickers, this is another section that is mostly color accurate out of the box. The only thing you might choose to color in are the missiles embedded in the rear skirt:

I don’t think there is any sort of canonical color for these, so feel free to do them up as you see fit.

Also, as you can see in the photo above, this kit uses those extra thick peg joints just like on the Messer. Hopefully I’ll have fewer issues with them this time around.

Feet

We’ve got some more orange stickers, and some little wings and even a toe bend (though not a whole lot of interesting detail on the sole):

I’m not sure what to make of these. They’re impressively large, but I’m not sure I love the look of them. Considering the Xi has a Minovsky Flight Unit, I (jokingly) feel like they could have made this like the Zeong, and just taken the feet and legs off.

Legs

This had to be done in stages. First I had to assemble, paint, and topcoat the upper thigh before doing anything else:

This is because this section will eventually be (partially) obscured, and it would have been much more difficult to fully topcoat it if I waited for final assembly.

Now, with that part of the leg complete, we now attach it to (part of) the lower leg, where we can see all guts that go inside:

That’s quite a lot of hollow space, which betrays the fact that, as big and as detailed as this model may be, it is still a High Grade.

Now we close it all up, at which point we realize that the two halves of the lower leg are not symmetrical. One of them goes so far up that it partially covers the knee joint:

This is why topcoating the upper thigh ahead of time was worthwhile.

Now for the outer armor. On one side of the leg, we get some blue thrusters:

The orange bits are color separated plastic, which is very welcome.

On the other side, we get more (differently shaped) blue armor, as well as these long wing thingies:

These things can move up and down, which is not super obvious just by looking at the lineart.

Between these and the wings on the feet, I’m reminded of Hermes’ sandals.

Oh, I almost forgot the knee armor:

When it’s all done, here is what we get:

I’ll refrain from commenting too much on the visual design until the model is complete. For now, suffice to say that there is a lot going on here.

Partially Complete

We now have enough of the model assembled to at least get it standing:

But there’s still plenty of plastic in the box, which means there’s still a good amount of work to do.

That’s why I’m going to split this build into two posts, which is a true rarity these days. We’ll stop here for now, and I’ll cover the rest of it next time.

Size Comparison

While the kit is incomplete, it’s finished enough for a size comparison. Let’s see how it stacks up next to some Master Grades:

Damn. It looks perfectly at home next to them. And once we add the arms and shoulders, it’s going to be even wider than them too!